Worthy of No. 4: EWU’s Isaiah Perez balances being a leader on the field with being a father, husband

Isaiah Perez first learned that he would wear No. 4 this football season at a June meeting with his defensive teammates at coaches.

The news came at a busy time for the Eastern Washington tackle: His wife, Lupita, had recently given birth to a daughter.

“It was a very proud feeling I had, knowing I get to represent the school and wear this honor,” Perez said at EWU practice this week, “knowing that I am from Eastern Washington, that I get to represent not only my school but my home.”

By wearing No. 4, Perez is the de facto leader of an Eagles defense that is looking to elevate its play this season after finishing at or near the Big Sky’s bottom in many statistical categories the last three seasons. Perez is also one of the team’s four captains – wide receiver Nolan Ulm, cornerback DaJean Wells and quarterback Jared Taylor are the others – as they prepare this month for a season-opening game at fifth-ranked Incarnate Word on Aug. 30.

But Perez carries more responsibilities than most of his teammates.

“He’s a great man,” senior defensive end Trevor Thurman said of Perez. “He’s very selfless, cares a lot about the guys. He’s also a father. He knows how it is. We can go up to him with anything.”

Perez sees the roles of captain and father as related. He said that having kids – a 9-year-old stepdaughter, a 2-year-old daughter and now a 4-month old daughter – has taught him to treat each person as a unique individual, and that children, like his teammates, react differently to everything. So, he has to take a nuanced approach to each of them.

Teammates and coaches said that Perez is not particularly talkative, and EWU head coach Aaron Best said he’s trying to push Perez to speak up a little bit more.

“I am trying to force him into uncomfortable situations verbally to be able to lead a little bit more verbally,” Best said.

But Best isn’t out to change who Perez is.

“He’s a consummate teammate, consummate father,” Best said. “I look at him as a grown man. … He juggles a lot of responsibilities, more than a lot of these guys who don’t have those responsibilities can even process.”

Though he’s a redshirt junior, Perez is only 23 years old. A 2020 graduate of Othello High School, Perez signed a letter of intent to play at BYU and then served a church mission in Sao Paulo. He enrolled at BYU before the 2022 season and redshirted.

All the while, Lupita continued to live in Othello, where she also grew up. So, whenever he could, Perez would drive back to see his family.

“Every Friday I would leave practice and drive 10 hours back home, spend the weekend with my daughter and on Sunday drive 10 hours back,” Perez said. “Every weekend I would make that drive.”

Perez opted to transfer to Eastern Washington the following January and joined the Eagles in time for spring practices in 2023. That trimmed his drive to Othello to an hour and a half.

In two seasons with the Eagles, Perez has played in 23 games, making one start as a redshirt freshman and 10 last year as a redshirt sophomore. In his fourth game of the 2023 season, Perez blocked a field goal to seal a victory at UC Davis and recorded his first sack two games later against Idaho State.

Perez continues to share an apartment with teammates in Cheney during the school year and football season, but as often as he can he drives back to Othello.

The arrangement requires sacrifices for the Perez family, and it has given Isaiah Perez a better understanding of his father Erminio Perez, who died in 2021.

“Growing up, I knew the sacrifices he made for me, but I didn’t exactly appreciate them as much as I could have,” Perez said. “Now, being a father, I understand that he put everything to the side for me. I see everything my dad did for me, and I just want to embody (that).”

Sixteen years ago, coaches first started selecting who would wear No. 4, looking for a player who most embodies the traits of grit, toughness, effort, leadership and academic success. Last year that player was defensive end Brock Harrison, someone Perez knows and admires.

This year, it’s Perez’s turn.

“His balancing of all the things that he has is incredible,” Best said. “On top of that, being that No. 4 jersey means that much more, so (now) he’s carrying another responsibility.”